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The Remarried Empress Vol 6-7 | Alphatart, Sumpul, Herelee

This series is so fun. So at a high-level, this story follows Navier, the empress of a prosperous country. At the beginning, she finds out that her husband, the emperor, has cheated and impregnated a younger woman. He also wants to divorce Navier and marry this new woman. While a little silly (but let's be honest, this reads like a K-drama so it's got that level of silliness) the political machinations from all of the characters is so much fun.

I recommend The Remarried Empress if you're looking for a political intrigue story with some magical realism stuff. The art is beautiful and in vol 7, Heniery takes his shirt off a lot, which is lovingly drawn.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: June 2025

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The Charlie Method | Elle Kennedy

This follows Charlie, a high strung college student as she navigates dating two dudes who are absolutely into screwing the same girl at the same time. Charlie was a solid heroine and I found the throuple concept but was absolutely bummed that the two dudes weren't into each other. It felt gay so like, just make it gay??

I listened to the audiobook which is a great way to read this book. Teddy Hamilton was one of the narrators and he was, as usual, fantastic.

However, at 528 pages this book was way too long. If this was sub 400 this would be more fun. It's a little hard to recommend such a long long book.

Format: audiobook

Read in: June 2025

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My year of rereads: A Simple Plan | Scott Smith

The set up here is so simple, a group of men find a crashed plane with a bag full of money and even with their simple plan, things go to shit so fast.

I have read both of Smith's books and there's a common throughline: a simple set up where things go to absolute shit. His writing is straightforward but is incredibly engaging. I think I enjoy The Ruins more than A Simple Plan but both are stellar. My biggest complaint? Please write another book.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: May 2025

Favorites of all time

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The Phoenix Keeper | S.A. Maclean

Cute and breezy, this follows a zoo keeper at a magic zoo and her attempts at helping the phoenixes have some babies. Cool! Fun! I did find that plot idea a bit thin and feel that it could have been a bit shorter and tighter. Second, I found the romance fine but uneven.

Tldr; cute but a little long.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: June 2025

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Relic | Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child

The cover of the copy I have says, 'it's Alien meets Jaws' and that's VERY accurate. This is a thriller where a monster stalks and eats people in the Museum of Natural History. Of course the Boss won't close the upcoming special exhibit even though it's the site of several grisly murders. The scientists have to science on a word processor, there's ancient PCR, and I just love all of that.

Fun, you'll read it in a few hours.

I have heard there is a movie version and haven't watched it yet.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: June 2025

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Ultramarine | Mariette Navarro

Our unnamed lady captain lets her crew swim in the ocean but the crew seems to come back wrong following the swim. I liked the concept and set up but I found the translation a bit bizarre. Because of the lyrical way in which this was originally written, and that this was translated from French, I just didn't think it captured the full depth of what Navarro was trying to say.

I can't read French but it could be interesting to read this in its original language. As it stands, it's an interesting idea that falls apart in its execution due to its translation.

Format: physical copy

Read in: May 2025

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My year of rereads: Fullmetal Alchemist Vol 1-3

I've read FMA all the way through once about a decade ago and am reading the series again. Reviews will be in groups of 3.

As a major comment, I remember reading these when I was a teenager when they were first coming out every two months. As a product of that, I remember things taking much longer, and being much more impactful. Now, reading these in my 30s I'm shocked at how fast everything's moving. Maybe it's just age on my end, or that I've read the story and remember some of the major story beats? Not sure. FMA is still incredible and you can see how it's inspired tons of other works.

Volume 1 through 3 really set up the series. The Nina part is horrible but I think the original anime fleshed it out in such a way that caused a generation of trauma which doesn't totally land in the original manga.

But to be clear, FMA is still one of the best manga ever written. If you haven't read it, I absolutely recommend it.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: June 2025

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Transmuted | Eve Harms

The Substance's trans sister.

This details Isa's desire to have gender affirming surgery, and once the money raised by her subscribers vanishes she turns to a questionable doctor. There's a lot of disgusting descriptions as Isa's body changes in ways that she most certainly does not want.

However, I do want to mention that there's two competing stories here, one on Isa's gender identity, and one on Isa's relationship to her family. I didn't feel that these two stories really gelled the way they could have to have a deeper impact. But I'd still strongly recommend Harm's writing.

Format: audiobook (high recommend, I thought the narration was really good)

Read in: June 2025

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James | Percival Everett

This is a solid, well-constructed book. I am neither a fan of Huck Finn (I know I read it in school) or literary fiction so this book already a lot stacked against it. While I think a lot of it worked really well, and I do think James will (if it hasn't already) cemented itself as an essential read. I look forward to courses that have kids read both books--Finn and James, and dig into why perspective is central to the story being told. What experience and identity mean to different characters, etc.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: May 2025

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The Underdwelling | Tim Curran

Do you like The Descent but wish it was about dude miners instead of ladies who def have some issues outside of the crawlers to deal with? This novella captures the claustrophobia essential to cave stories and I really enjoyed the horrific descriptions. However, I feel like this story could actually be two different novellas with one focused on the creeping dread of just BEING in a mine and the other of 'oh shit there's something else with us in this creepy mine'. That division between creeping dread and final payoff could have flowed a bit better, but for 80 pages is a quick and gross time. The horror was gross in the latter half but sort of shifted back at the last second to the creeping dread. I would have liked it to have fully escalated to on page nastiness. But that's just me.

Format: e-book

Read in: June 2025

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Natalie Haynes : A Thousand Ships

So this tells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of women involved. This is a fun idea, and I do think the women are well described and interesting. In particular, I really liked Cassandra and Penelope's chapters, especially how Penelope's chapters are written as letters to Odysseus. What hurt this book is just that I’ve read other Greek stories like Mary Renault and Madeline Miller’s stories. I also recently reread The Song of Achilles and that story is so engrossing that it sort of blows A Thousand Ships out of the water. But if you are looking for a multi-perspective, women focused Greek story, this is solid.  

Format: Physical copy

Read in: May 2025

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Lucy Foley: The Paris Apartment

This is a beach or plane read thriller. And I say that as neutrally as possible. The writing is fine and snappy, the chapters short and creepy, but I didn’t find the mystery particularly engaging. I would have liked more punch essentially. But if you’re looking for a fast thriller, I think this could be fun. This is my first Lucy Foley book and I’ve heard it isn’t her best. I'm curious about The Guest List, if you like one book more than another one let me know!

Format: Physical copy

Read in: May 2025

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Angle of Repose

This literary fiction details differences between generations and poses the question, what do we owe each other? While I found some of the ideas in here interesting and relevant, I couldn’t totally engage with the writing style. While the writing itself was clear and well constructed, I had difficulty engaging with the content at the level the book really was asking me to engage. I think if you’re a literary fiction person, this could absolutely be a favorite. But if you’re not, I don’t recommend this 500+ page Pulitzer Prize Winner.

Format: Physical copy

Read in: May 2025

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What I'm watching: Dinner in America

So I watched Dinner in America after watching the RLM Kyle Gallner triple feature. DiA is so stupidly good. This is two hours of furious, weird people in middle America trying to find themselves. Gallner plays Simon, a reckless underground punk rocker who runs into Patty, a college drop out whose parents just suck. I found the first 30-40 minutes to be a lot. Gallner is purposefully confrontational and aggressive. He yells a lot and I think that could turn folks off but stick with it, the story grows and works really well. The movie ends with a shockingly sweet romance between Patty and Simon.

Watched: May 2025

Platform: Roku for free

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Triple Feature: Gothic Romance

I love a gothic or horrific romance and wanted to highlight three that got under my skin in the best way possible in the past few months. Each book hits on some insecurity or inherent grossness inside people and I just fucking loved it. Also, the covers are so gorgeous and deserve praise for that.

My Throat an Open Grave | Tori Bovalino

Our MC accidently wishes her brother away and has to retrieve him from the Lord of the Woods. Think sexy forest monster so more pining with a wee bit less horror.

Together We Rot | Skyla Arndt

Our two mains here are dealing with two distinct issues related to religious fanaticism in town. Wil's mom is missing and Elwood is about to be indoctrinated into the weird religion of his town. There's some disgusting body horror here so this tips more horror than romance. Special recommendation to the audiobook which I thought the two narrators did a fantastic job.

Tenderly I am Devoured | Lyndall Clipstone

This is expected to come out summer 2025 and since I read the ARC in November, I'm just been reliving the story. Lark our FMC, finds out her brothers are losing their home and must marry a God. When things don't go well, she and her two neighbors need to fix it. Read the tags and comparison to Saltburn. Pretty evenly split between creeping dread and romance.

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My Year of Rereads: Swift and Saddled | Lyla Sage

I'm trying to reread more books in 2025 and S&S is one book I read in both 2024 and 2025. First as a physical copy and the most recently as an audiobook. The audiobook came in at my local library and when I saw that Wes was narrated by Teddy Hamilton, I knew I had to read it. Super fun, quick read both times.

High recommend, this is my favorite of the Rebel Blue Ranch romance series by far mostly because I fucking love Wes as a character but also because I think the chemistry here just clicks for me. Fun, quick (you're looking at 320ish pages) and with a nice guy protagonist. No enemies to lovers here, woohoo!

Format: audiobook

ReRead in: April 2025

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Kagurabachi Vol 4 | Takeru Hokazono

I'm having suuuuch a good time here. If you're looking for art, fun, found family, and some badass sword fights, kagurabachi is a great shonen option. Having fun, no notes, just let me have my samurai vibes.

Format: e-book

Read in: April 2025